Delta YAGEP Trainees Begin Harvest On Rice Farm

ASABA/Nigeria: A batch of 37 trainees under the Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurial Programme (YAGEP) of the Delta State Government yesterday began the harvest of their rice farm at Amoji in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of the state.
Each of youths trained under the auspices of YAGEP, which is a core segment of the mandate of the Job Creation Office of the state government headed by the Chief Job Creation Officer of the state, Prof. Eric Eboh.
Disclosing the development in an interview in Asaba, the state capital yesterday, the YAGEP trainer and off-taker of the programme, Barr. Raymos Guanah, said that each of the young farmers had two hectares.
He disclosed that under the aegis of the programme, a total of 185 metric tonnes of rice was expected to be harvested at an average of 2.5 metric tonnes per hectare.
Guanah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Raymos Guanah Farms Limited, lauded
the YAGEP programme for its long-term benefits, adding that with the threshing and
winnowing at the farm, the paddy would be processed and made table ready before the
end of the month.
He lauded the Governor Okowa administration for its active and consistent support for farmers, especially the rice farmers, stressing that if sustained; the development would greatly encourage existing and potential farmers to be more productive to ensure food sufficiency in
the state.
The renowned rice farmer also debunked the insinuation that locally made rice was of lower quality than imported one, adding that though there was room for great improvement, fresh local rice was not in any way inferior to the imported variant.
Guanah suggested that efforts at improvement of the local content of local rice have to dwell on packaging and de-stoning, adding, however, that the suggestion did not imply
in any way that the local rice was not as good as the imported variety.